He can pun in rhyme, but to harmony of verse he has no pretence. He wrote the following epigram upon a very parsimonious lady, a Mrs. Wharton, when at Tunbridge:—
Oft has my soul, puft up with pride,
The truth of sacred writ denied,
And to myself I still have said,
‘Sure mankind ne’er of dust was made;’
Till thou, dear Peg, revers’d my creed
And showed me we were dust indeed.
BILL AGAINST PUBLIC DEBTORS
The clause in Abbot’s Bill was not designed by him to have a retrospective operation upon those who have balances in bond due to Governt., but it was worded with such ambiguity that it threw persons so circumstanced into the power of the Auditors of the Exchequer. Ld. H. begged some confidential friends to attend to get it otherwise worded, and employed Adam as counsel to get Abbot and Baker to alter it. Tierney promised zeal and attention; Sheridan undertook it warmly. When the day came I grew afraid of Tierney’s candour, and thought he might yield to Abbot’s assurance of the harmlessness of the words; for Tierney would sacrifice the interests of anybody to obtain the occasional popularity of conciliating an opponent. I therefore enjoined Mr. Moore to rely solely upon Sheridan, who tho’ never punctual and not famously steady, yet would, I was persuaded, exert himself where he thought his services material. I was right. Tierney acquiesced in all Abbot alleged in behalf of the clause, and it was just going to pass into the Bill, when Sheridan arrived breathless from haste, examined the words, declared the sentence neither grammar, logic, or sense, and employed near two hours to convince the Committee that the ambiguous words should be expunged. They were so. The difference lay between ‘shall have been declared,’ and ‘shall be.’ I provoked Tierney by telling him before Whitbread, that my instructions to Moore were to shun the honest, candid man, as he would never help a friend at a pinch, too timid to essentially serve, too timid to commit himself by an opinion against any man, were the grounds not public and popular.
Interest commences from the enacting of this Bill, thus the interest cannot be reserved as usual to make a fund, and thus pay off the whole of the debt in a few years without touching us. But the principle is just, and nothing can be said against it with any decorum: and as it now stands it is certainly an expense, yet compared to what it might have been I am satisfied.